How to send out an Email Blast

There are multiple ways to communicate with your supporters and prospects. Broadcasters, the official voices of your nation, can send email blasts, Facebook messages, tweets, and text blasts.

To begin an email blast, select the broadcaster who will send the message from within the Communication tab. Click on Email - you’ll see a list of drafted and sent emails, if any exist. Click on New blast.

First, you’ll need to enter a slug, which is a shorthand way of identifying the email. A slug cannot include spaces, but it can include underscores. You can also include a description of the email that provides more detail on its purpose. A description is optional and can include spaces between words.

Changing Email Settings for a Blast

The checkbox below your description provides you the option of having any clicked links in the email that go to your nation also load the recipient's basic profile details into a form. Checking off this option can increase the number of people who complete the action on your website, but it can lead to confusion if the blast is forwarded to a person other than the original recipient.

Click the "create and edit email blast" button to continue.

Next, you will be given the option of choosing the recipients of your email blast. You can send an email blast to either supporters or prospects, but not both at the same time. Supporters have opted into receiving communication from you, whereas prospects have not. Communication with each group should differ.

Email Theme

Next you can choose a theme for the email blast. Once you click on a theme image, you will be taken to the body section to add content to your email. Before the blast is sent, you can go back to the Theme tab and choose a different public theme for your email.

Email Body

In the body of the email, you can change how the name of your broadcaster is seen by email recipients. There are two options that will convey that your message is coming from a person: use the sender's full name (e.g. John Smith) or use the sender's name and your organization's name (e.g. John Smith, Columbia Alumni Association).

The email content editor is similar to the webpage content editor: if you'd like to add an image to your email, first save it under the files section. Then insert it using the image button.

Spam Score

Before you send your blast, you’ll want to check the Spam Score to see if there are any issues that may lead to a lower deliverability rate for your blast. The Spam Score tab will provide a line-by-line breakdown of issues contributing to your spam score, their type, and details contributing to the score. A spam score between 0 and 2 is ideal for a blast. A score between 2 and 4 is not disastrous but should raise cause for concern, while anything with a score over 4 needs to be fixed before sending out the blast. Note that the spam score checks the text content but does not evaluate the quality of your email recipients list.

A text-version of your blast is automatically created based on the content you provide and can be seen in the Preview tab. You can send a test email to a single person using the send test email button at the bottom of the preview screen. We recommend sending yourself a test email before sending the email. Once you are satisfied with the content of your email, you can click the "Send email now to X people" button on the left side of the preview screen to queue your email for delivery.

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Are you an alumni group leader? Please contact your liaison in the Office of Alumni Relations or email alumni@columbia.edu to learn how to create an alumni group website.

Content on this page is the responsibility of the Columbia alumni organization represented here, and does not reflect the official views of Columbia University. If you have any concerns about this page, please e-mail alumni@columbia.edu